Everyone in high schools all over the Tenguu City area are ecstatic. Reason being? The Tenguu Joint Senior High School Festival, where high schools compete with one another by selling refreshments and services. Unfortunately for Shidou, he has the honor of being the Tenou festival executive member for Raizen High School. That’s not all Shidou has to deal with because a Spirt, codename <Diva>, is on the loose. However as it turns out, the Spirit <Diva> is a student idol at the Rindouji Academy for Girls, but with eyes only for female fans.

In other words, the next Spirit Shidou needs to make fall in love with…is interested in girls.

Miku Lily is the first volume in the Miku arc, containing both Miku Lily and Miku Truth, and this volume serves as a build-up to the larger events to come. In this edition of Date A Live, we are introduced to Miku Izayoi, an idol with the power to control people using her voice. She serves as the antagonist, not by malevolent means, but rather from a belief standpoint. Shidou rises in opposition, to both seal her powers and to prove her values to be morally wrong.

The story starts off with a pretext setting of the Tenou festival, where Shidou’s high school wages war with all other schools in order to be crowned king for the year, especially Rinjounji Academy, last year’s kings. However for Shidou, he has to deal with a Spirit that takes a liking to females only, regarding men as garbage. So in order to conquer her, Shidou cross-dresses in order to get closer to Miku. There’s a plethora of jokes about Shidou’s change into his girl alter-ego, Shiori, and “her” flustered expressions spread out through the volume among the cast of characters. Unfortunately, the real objective is to beat Miku as she figures out Shiori’s plan to seal her Spirit powers.

I’ll give Date A Live points for the music competition as the writing here is pretty reflective. Date A Live very rarely brought up the feeling of nervousness despite Shidou dating for the first time, and with a person that could practically destroy the world. His heart has been trained to prepare for the atmosphere of dating, but not a concert. The music performance shows Shidou’s nervousness to perform and when things take an unexpected turn for worst, Shidou’s mind goes blank. Fortunately, as the song continues, Shidou realizes how he can do his best when he doesn’t have anything to worry about, especially when he has someone very important next to him, which follows into the events afterwards.

Meanwhile, Deus Ex Machina has made an upfront action by sending Ellen, DEM’s best Wizard, to capture Tohka. However, the objective has been changed to include one Shidou Itsuka as a target. Orders are given to the AST to assist with the mission but one particular AST ace is rebelling against them, Origami Tobiichi.

Over the past two volumes, Origami has been slowly changing. She had to chance to kill Kotori who she perceived to have killed her parents, but in hesitation due to Shidou influence, she neglected to shoot. There is a rising confliction residing in Origami. On one hand, she wants to kill the Spirits to make sure no one will becomes hurt like she did. However, she also wants to protect the person she loves deeply, Shidou Itsuka. Her actions fluctuate between the two values but there is foreshadowing for her future development, especially since DEM Industries has Shidou in their sights.

The main heroine Miku serves as the main antagonist for this volume. She isn’t like Kurumi, killing people for her own intentions, nor is she Tohka, acting due to being threatened by the world. She is acting according to her own twisted beliefs and values, using people as throwaway pawns and servants. For example, she doesn’t care if a person dies by own hands. She would care only about having to find a replacement for her. Shidou/Shiori has described her as prideful, arrogant, and intolerable, and he challenges her to seal her manipulative powers. Over the course of the volume, we do get to see more of her actions and behaviors and how Shidou tries to convince her of her own wrongdoing however we don’t get to see any of the reasons behind them in Miku Lily.

The illustrations shown in this volume have more usage of textures, using them for different shades of gray like for clothing and hair. As for the color illustrations, we get to see a couple of cute pictures of a flustered Shiori. Probably just a personal issue, but I found Miku’s eyes very soul-less in her drawings. A noteworthy drawing I would like to bring up is Miku in her Spirit Form, as the lines become more thick and rough in size.

Miku Lily is a build-up to the next volume, where all of the major events that happen in Miku Lily will be concluded. With Shidou/Shiori competing against Miku, there are beginning themes about the power of friendship and trusting in others.